


Power Through

by Pandora_de_Romanus



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Amnesia, Angry Foggy, Angst, Can't tag for shit, Drinking, Foggy Nelson needs a hug, Frank Castle too, Jessica Is A Good Bro, Luke Cage - Freeform, M/M, References to Depression, Tags will be updated as it progesses, The Defenders (Marvel TV) Spoilers, The Immortal Iron Fist, Trying to Cope
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-01-18 15:14:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12390693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pandora_de_Romanus/pseuds/Pandora_de_Romanus
Summary: Set after Season 2 of Daredevil and after The Defenders. Contains Major Spoilers.Foggy copes with what happened at the End of The Defenders.Let's just say it's not working.The rumors about a Daredevil copycat also aren't helping.





	1. Chapter 1

Foggy powered through. 

That’s what he did. 

That’s all he’s been doing since Matt had taken to running around in his BDSM gear. Though Matt wasn’t running around anywhere anymore. 

But Foggy didn’t give himself the courtesy of stopping. He could not. If he stopped he sure as hell would fall apart and never feel like getting back together again. He knew. He knew himself. So he powered through. He followed the case of the Defenders that was what Karen called them on paper. He made sure they were safe, just as Matt would have wanted. He took Karen home, he made sure she was ok, but that woman was tough as nails and Foggy was sure she let him so that he would have something to do. He followed up with Trish Walker. He made sure Danny and Colleen didn’t need anything, he went and visited Claire, Luke and even Missy Knight at the hospital. 

He went and bought Jessica Jones a drink for all that it was worth. She smiled at him in the kindest way that woman ever could. 

Foggy followed the legalese of the search for Matt’s body though he knew they wouldn’t dig too deep in fear of re-opening the rift that could tear New York apart.

He went through the paper work to get Matt Michael Murdock declared dead. 

He thought about moving Matt’s things from the apartment, only to find out that Elektra had bought the building and given it to Matt when she died. She had left him a lot of money. A lot of money that ironically ended up inherited by one Franklin Nelson. Foggy didn’t touch it. He barely made it through the Reading of Matt’s Will. He hated the fact that Matt had had a Will to begin with and he had hated even more the fact that he was beneficiary of half of it. The rest went to Saint Agnes Orphanage, where Matt had grown up. 

So he kept on powering through. 

He took cases, he went to lunch with Karen, he cleaned Matt’s apartment. He helped Luke with a few troublesome kids in Harlem, he helped Malcom with information for Jessica, he learned that Misty gained a robotic arm, how cool was that???

He even found out that Danny was running around the city as its new Vigilante. The Immortal Iron Fist was a new street legend the bad guys learned to fear just as they trembled when someone mentioned Luke Cage. Though no one would make them quake as they did when someone whispered the name of the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. No one forgot him. 

Foggy least of all. 

When he found Frank Castle on Matt’s apartment, he thought he would cower like the coward he was. He didn’t . He felt numb. He had for a long time. Frank Castle had always scared him before. Now he was just one more of the crazies Foggy handled on a daily basis. 

“I heard about Red.”

“Took you long enough.” Foggy said, tiredly. Matt was old news now. 

“I was out of town.”

“I heard.”

Frank just looked at Foggy. 

“Red really cared about you.”

Foggy gave a nervous self-deprecating laugh. 

“Not sure if I buy that.”

“He did.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m not nice. I’m not Red. But if you ever are in deep enough shit to need me... Karen knows how to find me.”

“Thanks for that. If you need a lawyer and if you promise me not to blow your case like you did last time, and I have to tell you, you really pissed me off that time, you can call me. Free of charge.” Foggy said with a smile and put his business card on top of the desk.

Frank smiled back but took the card. You never knew after all. Foggy nodded his head. He didn’t trust Frank, not like he did the Defenders. He knew deep down inside, each of them believed in doing the right thing. Like Matt did. Frank was in this for revenge. But like Foggy himself thought, you never knew. He also couldn’t forget the fact that in one of Matt’s darkest hours, he had had only Frank and Elektra at his back. 

And when they were there, he had lived. 

When the Defenders were there, they let Matt sacrifice himself. He wasn’t blaming them though. Matt did it for Elektra, for the guilt. Foggy knew she was bad news from the start, but what good was it to blame her. She died. Again. She won in the end. She had Matt. 

And Foggy was left in the land of the living with a bunch of super powered vigilantes with issues bigger than the Empire State. 

But Foggy couldn’t stop to think about that. If he did he would break. If he did he would cry, and if he started he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to stop.

 

TBC...


	2. Chapter 2

The whiskey helped. 

Jessica came to drink with him often. She would never admit it, but Trish said she was worried. And since he was one of Matt’s people… The Defenders vowed to keep an eye on him. 

He didn’t care. Their presence gave him something to do. 

He helped Danny and Ward with legal aspects, Hogarth never admitted it but she trusted him with Danny which was rare. She didn’t trust anybody but herself with Danny…

Ward was funny. In this crazy world he lived he was one of the few who took it with humor. He thought maybe it was because if Ward didn’t laugh of their fucked up world it would drive him insane. 

Foggy knew the feeling well. 

For a few moments he would stop, sitting in his office. Feeling his thoughts run away from him, out of his reach out of his control and just for a second he would see in his mind Matt’s smile, or his smirk or his black and blue face. The unfocused eyes, or the glasses, or the smell of Matt when they would stand close so that Foggy could lead him. Or even the smell of Drunken Matt, when they would hold one another so tight so they wouldn’t fall. That was his favorite Matt, because he lied a little less, or so he used to think back in the day. What he wouldn’t give to see that liar again. It took only a moment and before the first tear fell he would be out the door to some fancy bar, far away from Josie’s, far away from anywhere he had ever been with Matt. He wouldn’t pick up if Karen called on those nights, nor would he answer Trish’s messages. Nor Claire’s. If Claire was trying to reach him , he knew soon, Luke or Jess would be looking for him. And when Danny or Ward called the office, they would be REALLY worried about him.

Foggy would come back and he would work, and he would keep the mask on. He would go through the motions. He would power through. He would pretend everything was fine. He would pretend that his world was still there and not under all the rubble that once was the Midland Circle building. If Matt had loved the freedom of the Devil’s mask, Foggy’s looked just like his face. But Happier.


	3. Chapter 3

He woke up in a small single bed. 

The linen felt harsh against his skin. As if each movement was like a file ready to scratch away the skin of his body. It all smelt of mold and bleach. The building was old. And he smelled the children, there were so many of them. All of them pissing their beds and vomiting in the hallway… The cheap perfume of the nuns… He spent the first week fighting nausea every day until he got control, and he screamed himself raw that first day because of the noise. He gagged instead of eating because he could taste Sister Mary Margaret’s unwashed hands in the carrots.

One by one… He reigned in each of his senses. First, he controlled the hearing enough to think. Then it was the smell. Then he learned to ignore the feelings on his skin and last but not least, the taste. 

After the first hell of getting control, and hearing in his mind an old voice that guided him, he remembered his workout routine. He couldn’t remember his name or where he lived but he remembered this voice that always had harsh words to help him deal with his weaknesses. 

Keep in control, keep aware of your surroundings, train to exhaustion or you could die, don’t be fooled by sentimentality. Never lower your guard down, never let anyone in, care and you are dead. 

When the nuns gave back the clothes he was found in, he touched them and felt the devil. The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. Daredevil. The Man without Fear. Him. He would sleep the mornings and go out over the rooftops, raining punishment over those stupid enough to sin against the weaker in HIS town. There was never any doubt in his mind that this was his mission. His calling. And he was good at it. 

It brought him peace.

 

TBC...


	4. Chapter 4

Foggy had heard the humors.

That Daredevil was back.

He didn’t dare believe it. Probably was a copycat. 

He couldn’t think it was Matt. He wouldn’t. If he did, it would hurt too much. He would know for sure that he was nothing, that he was worth nothing to his best friend. 

He went back to his apartment and still it was empty. Jack Murdock’s mementos, Matt’s memories of his father, were still hidden at the back of the wooden trunk. Matt hadn’t been there, so… Just some wannabe. It made Foggy angry. It made him want to hunt the bastard down for wearing Matt’s face. His name.

It was irritating to think that Foggy now accepted Daredevil as Matt. It was better than no Matt at all. He was truly angry. He called Jessica. Jessica wasn’t as big as Luke, nor fought like Danny. But Jess was wicked. And bitter. And mean. And that’s what he wanted.

“Jones.” She had answered her phone at the first tone. She was one of his favorite drinking buddies. 

“I heard there is a Devil in town.” He said. There was no time to waste.

“I heard about it too. Do you think it’s really him?”

“No one has been to the apartment. I’m here just now.” And he was. He couldn’t talk about Matt anywhere else. The apartment was heavy with everything that he was, so it was safe to say his name. He just couldn’t stay too long, or he would stay there forever.

“So…” She asked and brought him back to the conversation. His anger was a back in a second.

“Jess… If this is a copycat…” He told her, he had to make her understand how this guy wasn’t worthy…

“You don’t know that.” She said simply. Her job was to work with facts and that’s what she was trying to show him.

“He is dead and someone is wearing his face!” Foggy screamed angrily, he was holding on his sanity by tethers, raising his voice seemed a natural reaction at the time.

“It’s just a mask, Foggy.” She said trying to make him understand, trying to make him move on. 

“It was his freedom, Jessica. No one deserves his freedom. His name.”

“You hated it.” She argued.  
“I did, but he loved it enough to put it above…” He couldn’t finish that sentence. “So this bastard has no right to it!” He said out loud. Matt loved it, it was a part of him, and he wouldn’t let anyone use it. 

“Foggy…” Her voice wavered. He wasn’t sure what it was but sounded a lot like pity. “I’ll look into it.”

“Thanks.”

 

TBC...


	5. Chapter 5

The screaming was what brought him to that roof specifically. That tone didn’t bore anything good. It was desperation. Fury. 

But there was only one guy. 

Alone in the empty apartment. With no lights on.

As he got closer he could hear his erratic heartbeat and it put him on edge. He didn’t know why. It was just a furious guy in an empty apartment. 

“I need to go.” The guy said out loud. Maybe he was on his phone. There was no answer. “Being here… ” The voice continued but didn’t finish. The man was talking to himself. And he smelled familiar. He also smelled like tears. 

This in some way called out to him. He usually didn’t do talking. He usually didn’t waste any time being friendly. He was the Devil, chatting wasn’t what he did. So why did that man’s voice call to him? He didn’t know. He just wanted him to stop crying, as if the idea of that man so sad broke his heart. Of course he didn’t know the man’s name, nor who was he, he just felt… familiar. His smell, his voice… The way he moved angrily around the apartment to the door. Daredevil opened the door to the roof and slid in silently following the man, he made a show of noisily getting behind him.

“You!” The man said. It was an explosion of sound in the quiet place. There was so much hatred in that voice. 

“You take that off!” The man said and pointed to his face. 

Daredevil didn’t know what to do. That man seemed SO angry at him. He felt like he knew that man’s anger, but at the same time it hurt and he was so confused. He didn’t remember him. His name… it eluded him, as if he was just about to remember it. As if he was closer to remembering it than he was of remembering his own name.

“Who are you?” Daredevil asked, only to be thoroughly ignored. 

“Take that off right now! You’re not him! You can’t wear his face!” The man continued his verbal attack.

“It’s mine. They found me in it.” The vigilante said, his mind supplying ‘At death’s doors,’but that man didn’t need to know that. His voice, and heart, though, acted as if Daredevil had.

“Oh.” The man said only. Expressing a moment of clarity.

“Yes.” Said the Devil. “And it feels as if I should know you.”

“But you don’t.” The man said and it wasn’t a question. 

“No, I don’t.” Daredevil said.

“Don’t worry”, the man assured him with the most miserable and self-deprecating of laughs. “I’m not worth remembering anyway.”

“It doesn’t feel that way.” He answered the man starting to get angry.

“But it is.” The man insisted. “And this is your apartment. I take care of it for you. These are your keys.” The man grabbed his hand and put a keychain with 3 keys in it. No one had touched him that casually or that kindly since he woke from his brief coma. He shivered. The man wrote down some things on a piece of paper, put it in the same hand that held the keys and continued to talk. “This is my number. You call me if you need anything money related. The number under it is Claire’s. You get hurt, you call her. You also have some allies in the field. The Defenders. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Daniel Rand. You get in over your head, you call Claire she will get the word out.”

It was so much new information. He listened closely and committed it to memory. Names he should have known and that almost familiar smell of that angry frustrated man. That broken man he wished he remembered.

“You seem to know me pretty well.” He pleaded with the man. Maybe he could tell him more about himself. He wished to know.

“Barely.” Was the answer.

“Lie.” He told the man. The man’s heart was so frantic even if his voice was so steady. 

“Yes.” He said, not bothering to try and look for an excuse.

It puzzled him. “Why?”

“Because you already forgot about me. It’s no use to me to know you. And now that you don’t remember the person you were, there is no reason to.” It was a practical answer. Also sounded pretty sad. It also sounded true. 

“I’m sorry.” He said, he felt guilty for not remembering. It sounded as if he was hurting this man a lot.

“Don’t be. You are free now. You don’t have to be that person anymore. You can just be Daredevil.” He said and his breath hitched as if he was about to cry. He felt terrible.

“Would you at least tell me my name?” He begged without begging.

“No.” The man answered and his voice was hard to try and keep his composure. “That man’s life was not easy and it’s best for you if you never remember.”

“It’s not your choice!” Daredevil screamed at him! He was so fed up with that bullshit. The man kept keeping it from him. It was his life he had a right to know!!!! 

“Ask someone else.”

“Why are you being so difficult?” He asked, angry and confused.

“If you remembered me, you would have known that I was never easy and if I’m doing this is because I want you to be happy!” The man said with as much anger as he felt and left, slamming the door so hard the noise hurt. 

Daredevil held the numbers like treasures. 

He spent hours in that apartment, touching his things. Learning it, studying it, running his fingers over everything. He had expected a layer of dust, but the angry man was telling the truth when he said he took care of it. His presence was all around. His smell of whiskey, anger and sadness lingered over everything.

 

TBC...


	6. Chapter 6

Daredevil found and researched every one of the names he had. Claire ended up being Claire Temple. The Night Nurse. Luke Cage’s girlfriend. 

Luke Cage was Hero of the Harlem, had impenetrable skin and was superhumanly strong. Jessica Jones, PI, owner of Alias Investigations, was also superhumanly strong, also super resistant, but not as impervious as Cage. Daniel Rand, or the Immortal Iron Fist as he called himself on the streets, was proficient in kung fu in the same level as Daredevil, was also the billionaire owner of Rand Enterprises and his fist glowed along with the fact that it was known to take down walls and iron doors. 

They looked like a merry band these Defenders. If Daredevil didn’t know they were his allies he would be wary of them. He shadowed them for a few days, observed, listened to their lives… And after, he decided to approach Cage in this park in Harlem. He was alone and it was dark.

“Tired of stalking us?” Cage asked, but there was no answer. He kept the conversation going.

“I was relieved that it was really you.” He said with a naked hosnesty that Daredevil wasn’t used to. “Back from the dead. More lives than a cat you have.”

“I need information.” He said only. He wasn’t ready to get sentimental on this man.

“Of course. Never any time to be polite. Typical you. It doesn’t even look like you forgot...” He said simply. Irritated at his impatience.

“Yes. What do you know?” He kept the pressure. 

“Well I know that I trust you with my life.” This disarmed him. He wasn’t expecting it and it was the same truth from before and it made him rethink his behavior. He hated no knowing, but if he wasn’t careful he would ruin his life in the path of finding it. He would make sure to show this man respect. “I trust you to get the job done, to do the right thing.” Luke said after.

“Do you know my name?” He asked but he changed his tone.

“Matt Murdock. Lawyer. Opened and closed a law practice with a friend from college. You gave free legal advice to the poor.” Cage said and it sounded like the change in tone was pretty welcomed.

“You know a lot about me. I thought we were just allies.”

“Claire filled me in. Filled us all in after you…you know. We went to your funeral, man. Karen organized it, even with no body. We went to her apartment and talked about you. She even had a picture of you smiling. I thought I would never see the day.” He said mockingly, like friends do. It felt good. Like finding a piece of old him.

“Good things, I hope.” He joked back.

“Only good things for the dead.” The big man laughed at him. 

“I will remember that at your funeral.” Matt said, with an ironic smile. He liked Luke. And it was really good to know his own name.

“This Karen was my girlfriend?” He had asked. She must have cared a big deal to hold a service.

“Maybe you should ask her that.” Luke rapidly got out of the question, it sounded like there was history in there. He made a note to research and visit Karen. 

“Do you know the angry man?” He had to ask he was just too curious for his own good. 

“Who?”

“He smelt of tears, whiskey, paper and toner.” He described and hoped Luke would get the picture.

“Oh. I do. But you should ask Karen about it. They were your people, man. We just looked after them when you were gone. You would have done the same for us.” And his voice implied that, like his relationship with Karen, the angry man’s identity was something personal.

“I’ll keep an eye out for Claire.” He said to reassure his old new ally that he could still count on him. 

“I’m sure she’ll be looking out for you instead of the other way around.” There was laughter in his voice once more. Claire sounded like someone who could handle herself.

“She sounds like something.”

“She definitely is.”

 

TBC...


	7. Chapter 7

On the streets he met Iron Fist. 

He was young and very good. He was also pretty angry. As angry as he himself was when he went after criminals. He had heard the noises and followed it to an empty warehouse where Iron Fist was pummeling a bunch of bad guys. They weren’t Hand, just average bad guys.   
That made Matt confused. His research had indicated that Iron Fist’s beef was with the Hand and that he usually didn’t get involved with common crime.

He lent a hand anyway. He was an ally after all. And the kid was impressive to watch in a fight. The glowy fist thingy… very awesome. Not that he would say that to his face.

Between the two of them the fight was pretty short.

He looked at the young man and he looked back at him.

“I didn’t think it was really you. No one thought. We thought it was a copycat. Until Luke confirmed it.” He said serious. And strangely he looked relieved to see him. He looked at Matt as if committing him to memory. 

“Well, you’ve seen for yourself now.” Daredevil said and Iron Fist’s tone had been very serious. Respectful of him. Didn’t match what he had read about Danny Rand in the papers. That he was excited and positive. It was a bit disappointing. 

“Yes… You can’t begin to understand how happy I am.” He said and he his voice betrayed the heaviness in his heart.

“Why?” Matt asked, puzzled. He wanted to understand how he could have killed Iron Fist’s infamous joy.

“Because you… You were kind of everything I never really was. You would have been such a better Iron Fist. Religiously Committed to the mission, loyal to it… Maybe if it was you… K’un Lun would still be standing.” He said with an honesty reserved for those who came back from the dead.

“That’s why you were taking care of my city while I was gone? Protecting it because you think you’ve failed yours?” Daredevil asked, it wasn’t time to beat around the bush. He wasn’t the type to give advice. His life was a big mess, and all he managed to think about was a man he didn’t know the name and a life he couldn’t remember and he felt like a failure. Like forgetting that man and that life was some sort of crime. He didn’t want to hurt that man, he didn’t want to hurt the undeserving and he felt guilty. And he felt so alone. He wasn’t going to let that happen to this kid. He still had a long way to go. But like him, he had to do it, one step at a time.

“I did fail mine.” Danny Rand said behind his Iron Fist mask, but he sound very lost, like only Danny Rand could get. 

“It wasn’t me who defied the dragon. It wasn’t me that was chosen.” Daredevil explained it. He had done all his research in old files, possibly from the own hand. Forgotten in Midland Circle, when he was looking for his own life. Curiously, his files were gone, but the others were still there. 

Danny Rand still had a lot to do. In the mask and outside it. So Matt wouldn’t let him feel bad about helping, he was doing his part, and nobody would ever be perfect. He knew that. Every time he went home battered he was reminded of that. 

“What good was it to be chosen?” The young man asked.

“You have stopped the Hand.” Matt argued.

“We all did.”

“But you fulfilled the mission. Even if K’un Lunn is gone… The Hand was stopped. The leaders are gone. They didn’t get what they wanted, they are not fucking immortal and you have helped doing that. You’ve saved New York. Now we are here to clean the rest of this mess. Together.”

The young man let out a lighter breath and Matt thought that maybe he let out a smile, he then nodded and said:

“Together.”

 

TBC...


	8. Chapter 8

He met Claire Temple again before he had a chance to think it through. 

His burner phone had only four numbers and as he got to the apartment bleeding only one was appealing. The words of the angry man came to memory. ‘You get hurt you call Claire.’

So he did. 

As she arrived with her own key to his apartment and a huge bag of supplies. She guided him out of his armor and cleaned his wounds and sowed him up. After she was done screaming at him to help her with this or that. She decided to talk to him. He could feel her eyes on him, on the scars on his body, some of them from his last brush with death that had rendered him alone in the world. It hurt. To be so alone. He had loved to meet Luke. He had felt like an equal, like someone he could have by his side, for he was looking out for his people. Even if he hadn’t gathered the courage to look for Karen yet. Meeting Danny reminded him again why he did what he did. Why the city needed him and why he couldn’t give up. But Claire… Claire was definitely something else. 

“So you are really here.” She said with a soft hint that wasn’t there a moment before. Something that didn’t belong in her voice. Just this side of breaking.

“I guess you just made sure I stayed a little longer.” He smiled at her trying to keep her mind away from the past.

“You’ll never learn, will you?” She huffed out, long-sufferingly, and sounding more like he expected from this hard-backed woman Luke had told him about. He was a little jealous in that moment. She had handled that situation with so much control. She sounded wonderful. Luke was so lucky to have her. 

“In my defense, to my memory I have only been doing this a couple of months.”

“Ha-ha. Very funny. I was already missing the blind jokes. Now we have amnesiac jokes. You and Nelson should go into comedy duos.”

“Who?” He had asked. She said the name and she put them together as halves of a whole. Nelson… Was Nelson the angry man? Was Nelson… What was him to Matt?

“Never mind.” She answered and he knew that was probably why. The angry man had protected himself against him. Like he was poison, as if he so much as knew his name he would ruin it all. He asked himself what did he do to deserve this. To be this shut out…

Apart from that, was easy to banter with her. She smelt of Luke whom he already trusted and her attitude made it less compromising. Like it was just for fun, no problems in the world just the safety of Claire. Or maybe it was the painkiller lowering his shields he wasn’t sure, but her presence was comforting. He couldn’t pursue that question any further because he had soon fallen asleep.

 

To be continued...


	9. Chapter 9

He had decided to finally pay Karen Page a visit later on. He stood at the window and knocked lightly, just to get her attention. There was someone else in the room. A heartbeat. But the footsteps were too heavy to be Karen’s.

As he decided to enter, he found himself in the presence of a large man holding a gun to him.

“Jesus, Red! Could’ve blown your brains out!” The man said in that rough voice. He knew him. There was a familiarity to the way he spoke. 

“Hey.” He answered even if he had no clue to whom the man was. 

“I swear, Karen should put a bell on you.” Said the dark haired man putting the gun on the table nearby. 

“Is she in?” He asked simply. He didn’t want to show how little he knew.

“No. I’m waiting for her. Had heard you were dead. You look good for a dead guy.” Said the man and he felt uneasy about this person who smelled so heavily of gunpouder and blood.

“Thanks.” He answered trying hard to keep his unease from his voice.

The man scoffed and said in dry humor. “Your poker face is good but you have no idea who I am, do you?”

“No.”

“Frank Castle.” Was the answer from the man. That connected with the information Matt had looked up in his road to self-discovery. He found the name in one of the cases he had worked on. It was a big Media Circus, so was hard to forget.

“The Punisher.” He said.

“So they say.” Castle’s rough voice answered, letting him know just how much he didn’t care for the moniker. “It’s true, then? That you remember shit.” He threw back at Matt. Like a rehearsed dance. If Daredevil would push his button’s, fair game it was to return the favor.

“You could say that.”

“Hum. So that’s why Nelson still looks like someone kicked his puppy. Karen said she was going to see him. That he is not in good place. Shame.” The mention of the name made Matt’s heart jump. So, Castle also knew about Nelson, probably the blond angry man he had met. That excited and made Matt nervous. Was it good or bad? Was Nelson safe? The Punisher’s body count was pretty high…

“So you know Nelson.” He said, matter-of-factly, trying to gather more info.

“Of course I know Nelson. Everyone who knows you are you knows Nelson… Though he was my lawyer too… Did a hell of a better job than you did, I’ll give him that.” Castle was an Asshole and that was the first conclusion Matt got to in the small chat they were having.

“Well, thanks.” Matt said with a whole lot of sarcasm.

“Welcome.”

“Who is Nelson, anyway?” Matt’s frustration boiled over pretty quick and out of control. He didn’t know, but Frank had that effect on him. Always had.

“How am I supposed to know? Red, I don’t like you in a good day, in a bad day we are trading punches. Ask him.” Said the ex-military as if it was all very simple.

“I did. He didn’t even tell me his name.” He reluctantly confessed.

“Smart.” Frank said with a smirk on his lips that made Matt even more frustrated.

“What does that even mean?”

“I was fucked up into my own drama at the time, but I’m not stupid.” The Punisher started. “You took my case because you wanted to save your soul saving my ass, and then you were running around with a ninja supermodel and not doing your job. You know what happened to my case? Yeah, Nelson powered the whole thing through on his own. I blew it, I know, but I’m smart enough to know that if I had kept my trap shut he would have pulled it. And you? You did shit. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore. I was hoping Karen was that smart, but hey, she associates with me.” The last part was bitter and fond exasperated at the mention of Page. It didn’t help Matt’s anger.

“So what? I screwed up and he doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore? Some friend! No one’s perfect.” He was so fed up of not knowing, not understanding and of Frank pushing his damn buttons!

“Red, if you knew Nelson, and I barely know the guy, you would know that you would have to keep screwing up again and again to drive him away.” And that made a lot of sense in a twisted up way.

“So… I screwed up a lot. Nice to know.” He answered but he was calmer, more understanding of it all and it helped with his temper. He had still a question for Frank and he didn’t know if he would have another chance of asking, so he fired away. “Why are you helping me? No one else did.”

Frank let out a small laugh it was self-deprecating and fond. 

“Because I’m you in a bad day. And I lost my Nelson when they killed my wife. Yours is still around. Stop being an idiot.”

And that was his talk with Frank Castle. 

He understood then, why his relationship with the man was so difficult. Most probably, that was friendship in Castle-speak. 

Matt didn’t know what to feel. Much less what to do. 

 

To be continued...


End file.
